Verizon's DSL ads highlight the need for speed
NEW YORK — It's hard to imagine with all the buzz about high-speed broadband and the new media forms it enables, such as video on the Web, that about 32% of home computers still access the Internet via an old-fashioned, pokey, dial-up modem.
That's shrinking fast, though. The number of active broadband users at home was 95.5 million as of February, up 28% from a year earlier, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. And everyone from phone companies to cable operators is battling hard to capture the holdouts.
But crafting a sales pitch is not proving easy.
"It's a really splintered market," says Jon Gibs, senior director of media, Nielsen/Net Ratings. "People tend to shop on different factors: price or convenience."
Convenience-minded customers are likely to sign up with their current cable TV carrier or phone company for high-speed Internet service. That puts Verizon Broadband in a good spot. Nearly 65% of Verizon phone customers have plans that could bundle DSL broadband with their voice line.
That packaged appeal — plus aggressive pricing vs. the cable offerings — helped Verizon boost its broadband subscriptions by 47% in 2005 over 2004. It closed out 2005 with 1.7 million net DSL additions to bring its total to 5.1 million, making Verizon the top DSL provider in the category.
But Verizon has been using a humorous ad campaign to try to win over even more of the broadband holdouts.
One recent ad shows a singing diva on a computer screen. Her performance is interrupted and mangled by slow dial-up. She storms off the stage and tells the viewer "You can't handle me with your slow bandwidth."
In another ad an animated cat sweetly sings, "Here's wishing you a Happy-Cat birthday." But when his image fades out he breaks into a gruff voice and lectures the user on slow dial-up.
"We created the ads specifically to address the large majority of marketplace laggards out there hesitating about making the leap," says Patricia Foster, director of consumer strategy and performance assurance.
The trick was making what's essentially a demonstration entertaining. Ad agency Draft, N.Y. came up with the characters to present the product in a light-hearted manner.
"We wanted to highlight the benefit of moving to a broadband connection and we wanted to do it in a humorous, product-demonstration way," Foster says.
The ads did not, however, get a lot of laughs from consumers surveyed by Ad Track, USA TODAY's weekly consumer poll.
Of those familiar with the ads, just 9% like them "a lot," compared with the Ad Track average of 21%. The ads were a bigger hit with consumers 30 to 39, of whom 20% like the ads "a lot."
That's OK with Foster, as that age group heavily reflects a key target: families with children
Continued
That's shrinking fast, though. The number of active broadband users at home was 95.5 million as of February, up 28% from a year earlier, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. And everyone from phone companies to cable operators is battling hard to capture the holdouts.
But crafting a sales pitch is not proving easy.
"It's a really splintered market," says Jon Gibs, senior director of media, Nielsen/Net Ratings. "People tend to shop on different factors: price or convenience."
Convenience-minded customers are likely to sign up with their current cable TV carrier or phone company for high-speed Internet service. That puts Verizon Broadband in a good spot. Nearly 65% of Verizon phone customers have plans that could bundle DSL broadband with their voice line.
That packaged appeal — plus aggressive pricing vs. the cable offerings — helped Verizon boost its broadband subscriptions by 47% in 2005 over 2004. It closed out 2005 with 1.7 million net DSL additions to bring its total to 5.1 million, making Verizon the top DSL provider in the category.
But Verizon has been using a humorous ad campaign to try to win over even more of the broadband holdouts.
One recent ad shows a singing diva on a computer screen. Her performance is interrupted and mangled by slow dial-up. She storms off the stage and tells the viewer "You can't handle me with your slow bandwidth."
In another ad an animated cat sweetly sings, "Here's wishing you a Happy-Cat birthday." But when his image fades out he breaks into a gruff voice and lectures the user on slow dial-up.
"We created the ads specifically to address the large majority of marketplace laggards out there hesitating about making the leap," says Patricia Foster, director of consumer strategy and performance assurance.
The trick was making what's essentially a demonstration entertaining. Ad agency Draft, N.Y. came up with the characters to present the product in a light-hearted manner.
"We wanted to highlight the benefit of moving to a broadband connection and we wanted to do it in a humorous, product-demonstration way," Foster says.
The ads did not, however, get a lot of laughs from consumers surveyed by Ad Track, USA TODAY's weekly consumer poll.
Of those familiar with the ads, just 9% like them "a lot," compared with the Ad Track average of 21%. The ads were a bigger hit with consumers 30 to 39, of whom 20% like the ads "a lot."
That's OK with Foster, as that age group heavily reflects a key target: families with children
Continued
posted by AM at
11:49 PM
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